On July 31, 2012, members of the Centre for Research Architecture will present work generated during the MA in Research Architecture program at Goldsmiths, University of London. Selections of projects by Eva Dietrich, Helene Kazan, Steffen Krämer, Hannah Meszaros-Martin, Daniel Fernández Pascual, and Corinne Quin will be discussed in a forum moderated by Chris Molinski.

This forum takes place in collaboration with “Winning Hearts and Minds,” one of two projects by Critical Art Ensemble at dOCUMENTA(13), in a house at the far end of the Hauptbahnhof (close to the railway tracks).

Since it was established in 1955, documenta has evolved to become one of the most important international exhibitions of contemporary art. The exhibition takes place every five years, and runs for 100 days, involving more than 300 participants and attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors to Kassel.

The MA in Research Architecture program brings together a multidisciplinary mix of architects and spatial practitioners at Goldsmiths, University of London, for a year-long program of theoretical inquiry. Drawing on the vocabularies of urbanism, architecture, art, media, politics, and philosophy, the centre uses spatial practice as an open-ended form of research.

To learn more about the project, or to get directions or documentation of presentations, please contact Chris Molinski at vc103cm@gold.ac.uk.

The group TotemCollective has designed a new set of furniture for COPYSHOP. TotemCollective will be working at The Art Gallery of Knoxville this September.

The Original C Plus System is an open and modular shelving and seating system that will be launched at the COPYSHOP in Knoxville from September 12th - October 31st.

The ramification in the system symbolizes a modern world of collaboration and open culture going through the path from original to copy. The thought behind the design is to demonstrate the development of ideas and the variation of people involved in the process from original idea to the carrying out of the actual design. Therefore we will publish a public manual of how to create The Original C Plus System (TOCPS) on our website on September 12th for people interested in supporting our vision.

The Original C Plus System exhibition is supported by Jørgen Christensen Snedkeri and Kvadrat.

COPYSHOP is operated in Knoxville, Tennessee by The Art Gallery of Knoxville. COPYSHOP in Knoxville is the first official franchise of COPYSHOP.

COPYSHOP is a place where you can copy everything.

In COPYSHOP you will find products that challenge intellectual property. They can be modified originals, improved copies, political anti-brands - or a SUPERCOPY as the new original.

Background

“Intellectual property is the oil of the 21st century”- Mark Getty, american businessman and grandson of the oil tycoon J. Paul Getty

“Mans culture and technological development as we know it, is intrinsically connected to the free and unlimited right to copy”- Morten Skriver, artist

“There has never been a time in history when more of our “culture” was as “owned” as it is now. And yet there has never been a time when the concentration of power to control the uses of culture has been as unquestioningly accepted as it is now”.- Lawrence Lessig, lawyer and writer

Intellectual property in the form of copyright, licenses and patents has an increasing importance on society - and for what we say, where we say it, and to whom we say it to. The right over ideas maintains the status quo within the current economic order.The last 10 to 20 years has seen an exponential rise in the extent of intellectual property. This is due to the economy of globalisation and to the spread of information technology.

The fundamental legal concept is as follows: ‘if value then right’, or, to put it another way, ‘where there is economic value there is intellectual property’. This expansion has caused different reactions.

For example from the Open Source movement where the ownership of code hindered the best possible development of software. This caused, among other things, the operating system linux. In Brazil state sanctioned infringements of intellectual property has enabled the production of cheaper HIV medicine.We want to confront this development and produce, promote and sell products that challenge the concept ‘If value then right’.

COPYSHOP is initiated by Superflex and Copenhagen Brains

The Art Gallery of Knoxville is dedicated to new and emerging Art. It is an open space to cultivate ideas of Art and social engagement.

During a screening of "Live Free or Die Hard" on January 11, 2008 representatives from the Motion Picture Association of America served Pirate Cinema Knoxville with an order to cease-and-desist.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and its international counterpart, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) serve as the voice and advocate of the American motion picture, home video and television industries. They are private lobby organizations that advocate for the control of cultural products - and, on behalf of various American production studios, target and prosecute acts of piracy.

"It was clear by the in-person appearance of an MPAA representative that the primary intention was to intimidate and threaten," reported one eyewitness. "The 'piracy investigator' was really very nice to us, so I would hate to disparage him - but it was clear that the MPAA demanded he appear in person to make clear the authority they have and the very real possibility of police action in response to us. ... He was carrying a folder that said very clearly "The Fraternal Order of Police" on the front - and he described in detail how the bulk of his job consisted of criminal arrests."

Actions such as this one are frequently enacted by the MPAA to intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense so that they abandon their criticism or opposition.

This is known as a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation ("SLAPP").

"There were only five people in the audience. The investigator had to drive from Nashville (three hours away!) on the orders of the MPAA. This was clearly not an action to stop the potential loss of revenue- it was an action meant to intimidate, threaten, and immediately stop any conversation about piracy."

"After knocking on the door, and being invited into our space - he began making phone calls. He talked on the phone for a few minutes and then summoned us to speak with him directly. We talked at some length and at one point were handed the phone to talk directly with his supervisor."

"Once he served us with the order to cease-and-desist, the investigator appeared eager to leave ... but we encouraged him to talk with us about piracy investigation and his role in prosecuting piracy violators. He confessed to us that he was concerned about an attack on Pirate Cinema because he considered it to be a "rights" issue. He continued to say that after spending some time reading information on the Pirate Cinema website he informed the MPAA anti-piracy supervisors they should be cautious, and that he believed that Pirate Cinema understood this to be an issue of (human or civil) rights."

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (the kind used to prevent the organization of groups to discuss public issues) are prevented by the U.S. States of California and Tennessee, Code of Civil Procedure § 425.16 and corrections to the law as enacted in the Code of Civil Procedure § 425.17.

Pirate Cinema Knoxville is part of an ongoing discussion about rights and property. It is the position of Pirate Cinema that these are substantive issues, the discussion of which is socially significant and in the public interest.

Confronted with the threat of a lawsuit from the MPAA, Pirate Cinema Knoxville will suspend all screenings of artwork legally represented by MPAA.

We will resume Friday January 25 with screenings of artwork currently accessible in the public domain - from international work outside the domain of the MPAA, to artwork licensed under terms that are more compliant with the reality of our contemporary digital society.

Total control over who is using culture, when they use it and under which circumstances it can be used is not only an illusion, but is also an extreme violation of civil rights -- in the fashion of a bad remake of George Orwell's 1984.

Naturally, the Film industry is an industry that thrives on the production and selling of fantasy. it portrays an image of a the lonely heroe s fight against injustice, hostile lifeforms on distant planets and the battle between Good and Evil. However, with the claims of how copyright should be protected, it seems the film industry has lost the ability to seperate fantasy from reality.

These scare tactics are not new. In the 80's, the game industry made a prophecy that the copy friendly floppydisc would be the end of the video game. The music industry predicted the cassette tape would kill the music industry (and thereby music itself!).

In 1982 the former president of the American film lobby MPAA Jack Valenti claimed that "the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." Today there is more diversity of media and increased access to both video games, music and film. And this only seems to continue.

The battle of copyright is a battle for control. The film industry is fearing to lose control of whch films we want to watch, how we want to watch them and how we produce new film. The technological evolution is giving access to a gigantic supply of film. Video technology is incorporated into cheap cameras and mobile phones.Now that we also can edit our our own film on our computers, the film industry is scared - and they should be - of loosing their monopoly on creating film culture.

So far legislators worldwide have been convinced that pirating is as dangerous as aliens and terrorists, and several countries are punishing piracy harder than violence and theft.

But Hollywood is forgetting their own history. Companies like FOX grew to giants in the beginning of last century by fleeing the long arm of the patent laws and the patents on film production held by Thomas Edison.

The film indutry's war against pirates is a war against the technology, against people and against that reality we all really live in.